Survey: Women prefer female doctors, but finding one for heart health can be difficult
El Camino Health successfully pilots an innovative Women’s Heart Center
2025-02-12
(Press-News.org)
EMBARGOED UNTIL WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2025
Mountain View, CA (Feb. 12, 2025) – According to the U.S. Physician Workforce Data Dashboard, only about 17% of cardiologists are women, ranking as one of the lowest specialties among female physicians, yet heart disease remains the number one killer of women, accounting for one in five female deaths. El Camino Health is innovating a solution to address the unique symptoms and risk factors of heart disease in women.
A new national survey conducted by El Camino Health found women (59%) are much more likely than men (36%) to agree that a doctor of their same gender can relate better to their experiences, concerns and symptoms. But that can be hard to come by for heart care.
“Data shows that women have better outcomes when they are seen by women physicians or providers for their heart health. Therefore, I made it my mission to craft a center where women could feel more comfortable and we could deliver more equitable and quality care,” said Jane Lombard, MD, medical director of the Women’s Heart Center at El Camino Health.
The goal of the Women’s Heart Center is not only to listen to women’s concerns and symptoms, but to provide specialized care for heart issues that affect women most. This includes preventive care for women with particular risk factors, cardio-metobolic services for heart issues linked to obesity and cardio-obstetrics for heart disease caused or exacerbated by pregnancy.
“Pregnancy is the heart's ultimate stress test, increasing blood volume and relying on the placenta to support it all,” Dr. Lombard said. “Women are often unaware of the potentially deadly issues that develop during and after pregnancy, but it can be a major predictor of future heart problems.”
In addition to the scarcity of specialized cardiac care, the survey revealed that heart disease risks in women are drastically under-recognized, with only 19% disagreeing with the statement: Men are more likely to develop heart disease than women.
“Not only is this untrue, but women are also much more likely to exhibit symptoms that vary from those telltale signs we always hear about,” Dr. Lombard said. “Rather than the ‘elephant sitting on your chest,’ many women experience things like jaw or shoulder pain and shortness of breath, so it’s important to know those symptoms and advocate for the care they need.”
For Margaret Kalb, her family history of heart disease prompted her to proactively see a cardiologist. She turned to the Women’s Heart Center for care.
“Even though I was only in my 50s, I felt there was a possibility that something was developing,” Kalb said. “I wanted to see a doctor who specializes in women's cardiology and would truly listen to my concerns, someone who wasn't just going to say, ‘Oh, you're only in your 50s. You're fine. Come back in ten years,’”
Although she was not experiencing symptoms, testing revealed a major blockage, requiring triple heart bypass surgery.
“I feel Dr. Lombard and her team really took me seriously, and the testing they did saved my life,” Kalb said. “Finding a problem and scheduling surgery is a much better situation than having a heart attack and trying to deal with this as an emergency.”
Survey Methodology:
This survey was conducted online within the United States by Ipsos on the KnowledgePanel® from January 17 to 20, 2024, and surveyed 1,024 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This poll is based on a nationally representative probability sample and has margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level, for results based on the entire sample of adults. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact: christopher.moessner@ipsos.com.
About El Camino Health
El Camino Health has served the communities of Silicon Valley and the South Bay for more than 60 years, with nationally recognized physicians and nurses at two not-for-profit acute care hospitals in Los Gatos and Mountain View, and 19 primary care, multi-specialty care, and urgent care locations across the region. El Camino Health is dedicated to giving patients high-quality care utilizing the most advanced technology and research. As your healthcare partner of choice, we focus on keeping you healthy and getting you back on your feet when you need it, so you can live your best life.
Aside from achieving outstanding patient outcomes, the hospitals have earned numerous awards for clinical excellence, including being named one of the World’s Best Hospitals 2024 by Newsweek, one of the Best Hospitals for Maternity Care by U.S. News & World Report, one of America’s 100 Best for Cardiac Care by Healthgrades and becoming the San Francisco Bay Area’s first Magnet hospital, earning four consecutive designations from the American Nurses Credentialing Center for nursing excellence.
Key service lines include cancer care, cardiovascular care, maternity care, mental health and addiction services, orthopedics, pulmonology, urology, and women’s health. Visit elcaminohealth.org to learn more.
###
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2025-02-12
A new study has uncovered a novel P-type PPR protein, BoYgl-2, which plays a crucial role in chloroplast RNA editing and chlorophyll biosynthesis in cabbage. This discovery sheds new light on the molecular mechanisms governing leaf color formation and chloroplast development, filling a significant knowledge gap in plant physiology. By identifying a spontaneous yellow-green leaf mutant and deciphering the function of BoYgl-2, the research paves the way for innovative crop breeding strategies that could enhance plant productivity and agricultural sustainability.
Leaf color is more than just an aesthetic trait—it is a vital agronomic characteristic ...
2025-02-12
Accumulation of fat molecules is detrimental to the cell. Researchers from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), have made a breakthrough in understanding how our cells manage to stay healthy by recycling important fat molecules. Their study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals how a protein called Spinster homolog 1 (Spns1) helps transport fats out of cell compartments known as lysosomes.
Led by Associate Professor Nguyen Nam Long, from the Department of Biochemistry and Immunology Translational Research Programme (TRP) at NUS Medicine, the team found that Spns1 is like a cellular ...
2025-02-12
Classic Graph Convolutional Networks (GCNs) often learn node representation holistically, which would ignore the distinct impacts from different neighbors when aggregating their features to update a node's representation. Disentangled GCNs have been proposed to divide each node's representation into several feature channels. However, current disentangling methods do not try to figure out how many inherent factors the model should assign to help extract the best representation of each node.
To solve the problems, a research team led by Chuliang WENG published their new ...
2025-02-12
Male hoverflies are outflown by females when it comes to long-distance migration, new research shows.
Marmalade hoverflies leave northern Europe each autumn to escape the cold winter.
The study – by the University of Exeter – compared the number of males and females migrating at a northern point (Denmark) and further south (Spain).
At the northern point, 50% of hoverflies were male and 50% were female – but at the southern point about 90% were female, suggesting males are “poor long-distance fliers”.
“We carried out a range of tests and found females were better adapted for long-distance ...
2025-02-12
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Certain groups of consumers appear to be open to drinking smoke-impacted wines, a finding in a new study that could provide market opportunities for winemakers increasingly dealing with the effects of wildfire smoke on grapes.
The study by researchers at Oregon State University and in New Zealand found that consumers, particularly those that like smokey flavors in food and beverages, are open to drinking smoke-impacted wines. They also found that the type of information on the label can modulate consumer acceptance.
“This ...
2025-02-12
New research has highlighted microalgae’s capacity as a solution in the fight against climate change, but researchers warn that “smart microalgal bioprospecting” is needed to unlock its full potential.
The study highlights the vast, largely unexplored capacity of microalgae to mitigate CO2 emissions while driving sustainable industry.
“Microalgae have remarkable properties that make them an ideal tool for tackling climate change,” said lead author, PhD candidate Joan Labara Tirado from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS).
The review paper, The need for smart microalgal bioprospecting was ...
2025-02-12
Fewer wildfires burn in North American forests today than in previous centuries, increasing the risk of more severe wildfires, according to research published this week in Nature Communications. The findings may seem counterintuitive, but frequent low-lying surface fires often maintain balance in forests by reducing fuel sources across large areas.
The new study led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder and the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station ...
2025-02-12
Older people have greater general happiness, life satisfaction and sense of purpose than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic.
That’s according to a new study which tracked 3,999 over 50s in England for 11 years, published today in the peer-reviewed journal, Aging and Mental Health.
Analysing data to understand positive psychological well-being and depression within this group, an expert team from UCL (University College London), funded by the National Institute of Ageing, a consortium of UK government departments coordinated by the National Institute ...
2025-02-11
Dr. Alison Altman, an assistant professor in the Texas A&M Chemistry Department, has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, which supports early-career faculty in research and education. The award recognizes her work on underexplored elements of the periodic table and her dedication to teaching. For Altman, it’s a launchpad for future discoveries.
“It’s an honor to receive this award, as it acknowledges not just my research program but also my teaching efforts,” ...
2025-02-11
Micro- and nanoscale plastic particles in soil and water can significantly increase how much toxic chemicals plants and human intestinal cells absorb, according to two new studies from Rutgers Health that raise fresh concerns about food safety from plastic pollution.
The first study in NanoImpact found that lettuce exposed to both nanoscale plastic particles and common environmental pollutants such as arsenic took up substantially more of the toxic substances than plants exposed to the pollutants, alone confirming the risks of polycontamination of our food chain. A companion study in Microplastics journal showed ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Survey: Women prefer female doctors, but finding one for heart health can be difficult
El Camino Health successfully pilots an innovative Women’s Heart Center
